Five to 10, when I was just playing out and I didn’t realise I was a girl. Before my boobs came in, basically.
When were you happiest?
Question
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Daily life
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Identity & self
Question
What do you value most in your friends?
Relationships
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Asked in 52 of the 131 consecutive instalments of The Guardian's The Q&A harvested on 2026-08-29.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
I can't remember a time when I was happier than now, to be honest – though that's always been the case.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 April 2014 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 581 →
Vinnie Jones
English professional footballer and actor
In 1988, when the final whistle went in the FA Cup final and we beat Liverpool.
Mike Skinner
English rapper
When I was a child and I got a new toy.
The moment I knew I would spend my life with Lisa.
More from Ricky Gervais
View profile →A dog. (I don't have one because we're back and forth over the Atlantic and it would be cruel to leave it.)
Playing with a dog. And we’re both drunk.
It’s hard to narrow it down, because I want them to have a bit of everything—humor, kindness, integrity, intelligence, tolerance (they need lots of that). But if I had to choose just one it would probably be loyalty.
Over a YouTube clip about animals. "Laboratory animals see sunlight for the first time", or "elephant mourns his best friend the goat". I watch something like that every day and I'm always in pieces.
More on time & hindsight
- What is the most important lesson life has taught you? 143 answers
- What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? 86 answers
- What scares you about getting older? 64 answers
- What is the best advice you have ever received? 32 answers
- If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? 25 answers
- What is something you were told by a parent, teacher, or mentor that you still repeat to yourself? 25 answers
Also answered this
Mike Wallace, Renée Zellweger, Lupita Nyong'o, James Bay, Patti Smith, Bobby Gillespie
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All time & hindsight questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject